V. V.'s Eyes by Henry Sydnor Harrison
page 305 of 700 (43%)
page 305 of 700 (43%)
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than Junebugs."
The proprietor of the deceased bug, having raised her damp dark face, ceased crying instantly. Over the astounding windfall the chubby fingers closed with a gesture suggesting generations of acquisitiveness. "Is it hers to keep?" spoke her aged sister, in a scared voice. "That there's a _dollar_, mom." "Hers to keep ..." replied the goddess, smiling. But her speech stopped there, shorn of a donator's gracious frills, and the smile became somewhat fixed upon the lovely lip.... There had appeared a man's face at the glass of the old doors, and the lady, straightening benignantly to sweep on to her triumph upstairs, had run suddenly upon his fixed gaze. Nothing, of course, could have been more natural than this man's appearance there: who upon earth more suitable for door-keeper to the distinguished visitors than he, who had given his office to the Settlement to-day, in lieu of more expensive gifts? Yet by some flashing trick of Carlisle's imagination, or of his air of immobility, seen darkly through the glass, it was almost as if he might have, been waiting there for her alone.... But the meeting of eyes was over as soon as it began. With so prompt a courtesy did the Dabney House physician swing open the door that it was as if he had been opening it all along, as if she hadn't caught him looking at her.... "How do you do, Miss Heth?... Such a dreadful day!--you were brave to |
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